OBTRUSIVE MENTAL HEALING

The question will present itself: Shall people be treated
mentally without their knowledge or consent? The
direct rule for practice of Christian Science is the Golden
Rule, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye."
Who of us would have our houses broken open or our
locks picked? and much less would we have our minds
tampered with.
Our Master said, "When ye enter a house, salute it."
Prolonging the metaphysical tone of his command, I say,
When you enter mentally the personal precincts of human
thought, you should know that the person with whom
you hold communion desires it. There are solitary exceptions
to most given rules: the following is an exception
to the above rule of mental practice.
If the friends of a patient desire you to treat him without
his knowing it, and they believe in the efficacy of
Mind-healing, it is sometimes wise to do so, and the end
justifies the means; for he is restored through Christian
Science when other means have failed. One other occasion
which may call for aid unsought, is a case from
accident, when there is no time for ceremony and no other
aid is near.
The abuse which I call attention to, is promiscuousMISC 283
and unannounced mental practice where there is no necessity
for it, or the motive is mercenary, or one can to advantage
speak the truth audibly; then the case is not
exceptional. As a rule, one has no more right to enter
the mind of a person, stir, upset, and adjust his thoughts
without his knowledge or consent, than one has to enter
a house, unlock the desk, displace the furniture, and suit
one's self in the arrangement and management of another
man's property.
It would be right to break into a burning building and
rouse the slumbering inmates, but wrong to burst open
doors and break through windows if no emergency demanded
this. Any exception to the old wholesome rule,
"Mind your own business," is rare. For a student of
mine to treat another student without his knowledge, is
a breach of good manners and morals; it is nothing less
than a mistaken kindness, a culpable ignorance, or a
conscious trespass on the rights of mortals.
I insist on the etiquette of Christian Science, as well
as its morals and Christianity. The Scriptural rule of
this Science may momentarily be forgotten; but this is
seldom the case with loyal students, or done without
incriminating the person who did it.
Each student should, must, work out his own problem
of being; conscious, meanwhile, that God worketh with
him, and that he needs no personal aid. It is the genius
of Christian Science to demonstrate good, not evil, -
harmony, not discord; for Science is the mandate of
Truth which destroys all error.
Whoever is honestly laboring to learn the principle of
music and practise it, seldom calls on his teacher or musician
to practise for him. The only personal help requiredMISC 284
in this Science is for each one to do his own work
well, and never try to hinder others from doing theirs
thus.
Christian Science, more than any other system of
religion, morals, or medicine, is subject to abuses. Its
infinite nature and uses occasion this. Even the humanitarian
at work in this field of limitless power and good
may possess a zeal without knowledge, and thus mistake
the sphere of his present usefulness.
Students who strictly adhere to the right, and make the
Bible and Science and Health a study, are in no danger
of mistaking their way.